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At the 2005 Minicon, a friend of mine was talking about science fiction writers who were trying their hand at thrillers, mixing in a little near-future science with their mystery, intrigue, and violence. Their problem, he remarked, was that the SF writers could never resist turning their stories into science fiction, usually giving their work a little more depth and complexity than the average thriller, but also cutting down on their chances of breaking through to a wider audience.

Paul McAuley could be the poster-boy for this phenomenon. His last novel, White Devils, was a tense exploration of a near-future Africa caught up in a bio-engineered nightmare, but the science was a little too complicated and a little too real to lure many readers away from Michael Crichton, and McAuley's own literary ambitions, the allusions to Apocalypse Now and the desire to give his characters some emotional depth certainly could have left behind readers who are more interested in the destruction that weapons can cause than in why they are being used.

Nevertheless, given the difference in sales numbers between the average SF novel and the average mass-market thriller, it's easy to see that a book doesn't have to become a world-wide sensation in order to be a success from the viewpoint of the science fiction writer. And if you're good at it, there's even less reason to not continue on your chosen path. Thus comes Mind's Eye, the latest novel By Paul McAuley, a spies and ancient conspiracies thriller that matches White Devils page-by-page in intensity and characterization, and outdoes it in the smooth way a bit of scientific speculation is woven into the basis of the plot and historical background.

The story begins with an episode from the childhood of Alfie Flowers, one that left him with a mild form of epilepsy. Years later, as a professional photographer, he sees a design by a graffiti artist that brings back his childhood trauma. Alfie enlists the help of a friend, Toby Brown, and together they search for Morph, the graffiti artist.

Meanwhile, Harriet Crowley, a securities expert with ties to British Intelligence agencies is also hunting for Morph and the glyph, not because of epilepsy but because the glyph can be used in a form of mind-control, the visual pattern in combination with certain drugs goes right into the depths of the brain, provoking deep-ingrained responses and leaving the recipient open to outside suggestion and control. The glyphs have been used before, in a disastrous experiment conducted by the CIA that resulted in the deaths of thousands, and Harriet believes the men responsible have returned and are hunting Morph. Mind's Eye starts out deceptively light, with its main character in pursuit of a family mystery, but from the moment Harriet and Alfie's paths cross Mind's Eye is taught and tense, with a story that roams from England to the Middle East.

Mind's Eye may be a step closer to the mainstream than was White Devils, but SF readers will still find plenty here to appreciate. The glyphs and their effect on human psychology is built on speculation and presented in a manner that would have done Philip K. Dick proud. The recounting of the unleashing of the glyphs on an isolated village sounds eerily like the attack of the forces of free-market consumerism in Frederik Pohl's The Merchants War, with the difference that Pohl plays the idea for its satirical affect, while McAuley makes it all too real.

Mind's Eye probably won't propel McAuley's career into the same place as Stephen King, Michael Crichton and all the others, but it should continue to build on the same audience that appreciated White Devils. If you enjoy a good suspense story supported by solid speculation and interesting characters, Mind's Eye deserves a place on your reading list.

Reviewer Greg L Johnson couldn't help but notice some strange after-effects since vieweing a recent glyph exhibition in St. Paul, Minnesota. His reviews also appear in the The New York Review of Science Fiction.